“We just knew that we needed to pick our heads up a little bit and just kind of make the decision that we were going to come out and respond,” Morgan said.
The speech worked.
Emmanuel went on a 20-4 run to end the game en route to a 70-60 victory over the Indians on Tuesday night at the Lions Den in Springfield that extended their winning streak to 21 straight games.
Lions senior Nate Hudson had a game-high 19 points, junior Josh Witherow had 16 points and senior Bryson Shirk added 14 for the Lions, which improved to 21-1. Emmanuel senior Darryus Myers and junior Jayden Thomas each scored nine points in the victory.
Mechanicsburg seniors Eli Wilson and Josh Titus each scored 15 and junior Colton Salyers added 13 for the Indians, which fell to 7-14 overall.
The score was tied at 30 at the half. The Indians grabbed a 50-46 lead on a 3-pointer by Titus with under a minute to go.
Mechanicsburg increased its lead to 56-50 on a putback by Wilson, forcing an Emmanuel timeout.
That’s when Morgan reminded his players what was at stake. He knew his seniors weren’t going to let his squad falter in their final home game.
“I don’t think that there was any doubt in my mind that these seniors were going to let that happen,” Morgan said. “We had a moment with Nate. He’s the (Metro Buckeye Conference) Player of the Year. We had to give him a little reminder that he is the Conference Player of the Year amd he comes up big.”
From that point forward, the Lions took over.
Emmanuel scored seven quick points, capped by an old-fashioned three-point play by Shirk to make it 57-56. Hudson then scored two straight baskets to increase their lead to 61-57, forcing a Mechanicsburg timeout.
Two free throws by Hudson and a 3-pointer by Witherow made it 63-57 with less than three minutes remaining. The Indians wouldn’t get any closer.
In the moment, the Lions weren’t worried about the winning streak, Hudson said. They were just hoping to put another W in the win column — just like they’ve done all season.
“It all just kind of came together game by game, like we were just worried about the next one every time,” Hudson said. “We weren’t thinking about the end of the season. We weren’t thinking about the middle of the season. We’re just thinking ... keep chopping. Next game after next game mentality. I think with an energetic, just intense team that we have, that’s why it happened because we weren’t willing to quit.”
Now they’ll set their sights on the postseason. The Lions earned the No. 3 seed in the Division VI Southwest North District. They’ll face the winner of No. 6 Riverside and No. 7 Twin Valley South at 7:30 p.m. March 2 at Troy High School. The Lions beat Riverside 70-39 on Jan. 14.
With a victory, the Lions would tie the school record for consecutive wins in a season, matching the 22-game win streak set by the 2019-20 squad who advanced to the district tournament for the first time in school history.
“That is exactly the kind of game you hope for going in the tournament,” Morgan said. “We feel like we’ve not been in a lot of games like that this year where we had to overcome some serious adversity late in the game. We’ve played some great teams. (Mechanicsburg) gave us a huge fit, especially down their second-leading scorer tonight — all credit to them. I feel like they’ve been incredibly unlucky with some results that have gone the other way this year. They’re gonna really cause problems in the tournament. But I just couldn’t say enough about these guys on the team that just stepped up. They understood the call that was needed.
“Then we call the timeout down six, and, you know, you fire them up a little bit, and you hope it works, and it worked today.”
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